The best of the (actually funny) Caleb Williams injury memes

The good news for Bears QB Caleb Williams is that his injured hamstring is about as good as he or the team could have hoped.

The bad news? Social media is roasting Williams' real-time reaction to the injury when it happened. Some are funny. Others are downright vicious, questioning the toughness of the same quarterback who got beat to a pulp as a rookie.

If you watched Williams go down late in Sunday's game, it was a pretty shocking moment. He fell untouched and writhed in pain, unable to get up immediately. Solder Field, already a bit down after a bad offensive day and three hours in the rain, fell silent.

Now that we know Williams' hamstring didn't detach from the bone, it was open season. You knew it was bound to happen.

The Keyboard Corps is really leaning into the same through line on most of these: that being carted off for a short-term injury is a serious affront. Even former NFL players got in on the action.

But we're going to veer away from that type of response. Some of the Williams memes were downright funny. These were jokes that maybe even Williams could possibly laugh at. You know, when he's feeling better. (Watch it!)

It felt like this one was made specifically for my wife.

Anyone who has kids knows this one is good.

I'd rather step on a jellyfish than a Lego piece. Seriously. They're colored caltrops for kids.

Lieutenant Dan had more than a grade-1 hammy.

There actually were multiple "Forrest Gump"-related memes, including this well-worn trope.

This is absurd, but mesmerizingly funny, too.

This one has a whole series, including burning your mouth on a Hot Pocket …

This is just good, clean fun from where I'm sitting.

Williams is going to be asked about this — or these memes — at some point. Maybe it's not this week, as head coach Ben Johnson said Williams might not practice. But eventually, Williams will be asked.

I'll be curious about his reaction to them. There are some parallels to the Paul Pierce situation from a generation ago. In Game 1 of the 2008 NBA Finals, Pierce had to be carried off the floor, yet he miraculously returned in just a few game minutes to make a few buckets and go on to win Finals MVP.

The backstory of that one isn't clear. Did Pierce really use the "injury" as an excuse to use the commode? Maybe, even if Pierce's story has wavered on that one over the years.

If Williams has fun with it, it could turn in his favor. If not? It might be the kind of thing fans hang around his neck for every tough game, every tough playoff loss or — yep — every time he gets hurt in a game.

We'd hate to see that. And you can probably tell, these memes are mostly in the we-all-can-laugh-without-being-mean category. Some are downright terrific.

The rest? Most of us have already moved on from those.